Karez
by SugarMeSweet
Summary: One leg of a story in which three women change the lives of Gandalf, Legolas and Aragorn(read;typical, horrible Mary Sue). This is kinda in the middle of it, I'll try to get the rest posted soon. Ratng is just to be safe.


Disclaimer: I own nothing but Karez and her horse. Willow belongs to a friend of mine, Arshess belongs to one of her friends. All other major characters belong to some lucky member of the Toliken family.  
  
Author's note: Karez's full name is pronounced Ka-rez-an-teen-as Gee-air-a  
  
Kind of a crossover between LOTR and the world of some characters I created, in  
  
case anything seems out of whack.  
  
The sun had disappeared over the horizon long ago and it was still raining. Karezantinas Gaerra silently cursed each drop (with words she'd eventually beg forgiveness for) as they fell around her and penetrated her cloak. She didn't know how long she'd been traveling, she didn't know how long it would be until she decided she was done, all she knew was she had to get away from Narnya and that she could never go back.  
  
*even if it was the only place where a human could have an elf's name without any questions*  
  
With a sigh of weariness, she decided that she had reached her traveling limit for the day. There was a small town not far from her, so she pulled her dingy pale green cloak closer and rode into the heart of the village.  
  
The first time she saw the word "inn" on a sign, she pulled Payton's reigns to bring her to a stop. She secured her horse, paid the innkeeper and stepped back to survey her surroundings.  
  
Ok, so she could have picked a better place. But comfort wasn't foremost on her mind, neither was security as her father had ensured at an early age that her own two hands would bring her enough. Well, the man she called her father; Jakoy was a cleric at the temple that raised her. But he was long since dead and now she had nothing behind her and nothing ahead of her but a half-hearted quest to find her real parents. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she found a spot at the end of the bar, far from any other customers. She decided it would be best to stay out of the way and keep her cloak on. The only other women she could see either had jobs behind the bar or in the bedroom. The less attention she brought to herself, the better. All she needed was a little to eat, a lot to drink and a whole night of rest.  
  
After she had eaten the largest (but certainly not best) meal she'd had in months, Karez decided to call it a night. As she pushed her was through the sweaty, drunken men that filled the tavern, she mentally congratulated herself on making it through the evening without an incident.  
  
*Again, you gotta go and think too soon* she though as an arm wrestling match gone wrong knocked her to the floor, throwing her hood off of her head. Knowing her identity was no longer a secret; she simply rose to her feet and allowed her sandy red hair to fall down past her shoulders, curling around her breasts. It seemed those breasts had received quite a bit of attention from the onlookers. She ignored their staring and again attempted to push her way through the crowd, but she was roughly pulled backward by a hand around her slender wrist.  
  
"Wesdin *hic* Krosedar. Whas yer name?" the man asked her, his words slurring together and saliva nearly dripping out of his half-open mouth.  
  
Knowing the part of the country well enough to know that the simple truth would most likely ward him off, she stated, quietly but proudly, "Karezantinas"  
  
Wesdin's eyes widened and he walked away muttering what sounded to Karez like "elven whores" under his breath.  
  
Simply wishing to find any bed to sleep in, she turned to be on her way only to come face to face with another customer. "Might want to keep in quieter next time." He hissed as he grabbed her hair and pulled it back to the base of her neck. "Funny, those don't look like pointed ears." Before she could respond, her mouth was covered with his lips, the taste of an eclectic mix of liquors overpowering her. Wanting to break herself of the unwelcome kiss, she brought her knee up sharply, making contact with his crotch. It managed to break the kiss, but his high level of intoxication allowed him to recover quickly. Luckily, Karez had drawn her sword, her one weapon, before he did. "Always love a good fight" she hissed quietly. As her attacker pulled himself back up, he took the sword from a man at the bar who was either a friend of his or drunk himself as he did not seem to care. Before she could raise her sword to make her first strike, a dark figure stepped between her and the man. The sound of an all too brief swordfight ensued, the dark figure quickly disarmed her attacker, who was intelligent to know that he had been beaten and returned to his drinking. She replaced her weapon, seeing as her fight had been resolved by this mysterious stranger. He turned to face her, his own sword replaced as she pondered whether she was grateful or angry. Her subconscious responded when she instinctively punched him with all her strength before she even got a chance to see his face. *angry* she thought *definitely angry*  
  
"What the hell?" he demanded in a surprisingly soft (though angered) voice as he rubbed his face where she had stricken him.  
  
"That was for spoiling my fun! You ruined the one thing that might have made this day worth my time!"  
  
He removed his hand from his face and gave her a puzzled look. She only hoped he was still that gorgeous when he wasn't confused. He met all the typical requirements. Tall, yes, taller than her anyway. Dark, with his chin-length brown hair, brown eyes and dark complexion, there was no doubt. And as long as he was tall, dark, and not deformed, he was handsome. However, something about him was not typical. He wasn't polished at all, with a five o'clock shadow and calloused hands: obviously not elven grace here, but manly he was and Karez found him even more beautiful for that. She gave a self-exasperated sigh and decided tat hitting someone who only thought there were helping wasn't such a good idea. She was still angry about missing out on the fight, but he didn't know about her day or that she could have defended herself had he not intervened.  
  
"I'm sorry…" she began as she reached a hand out to help her supposed savior.  
  
"As am I. Next time, I'll just leave you to be butchered!"  
  
Anger flashed through Karez's green eyes. She caught herself before she said or did something else she'd regret. She took a deep breath as she swallowed her vast amount of pride and told him "Thank you. Not that I needed it." She pulled a cloth out of one of her pouches and wrapped it around the leftover ice from her drink. He sat at a nearby round table while Karez attended to the bruise that was slowly appearing around this man's eye.  
  
"Oh, of course you don't need my help when a life and death situation is fun to you! What exactly do you do in a fight?"  
  
Karez did her best to hold back her retaliations and said "I'm trying to make it up to you, jackass!" *dammit* "That sounded so much better in my head…"  
  
"I'm the one who's injured and she's the one who's angry."  
  
The sandy-haired girl didn't realize he was talking to anyone in particular until a response came from behind her "She is trying, Aragorn."  
  
Startled, Karez whirled around to see a man with blonde hair and a boyish face, obviously an elf, but with a hood pulled up over his head as if he were trying to hide his race. Behind him gathered an odd group of companions, an older man with long white hair in the robes of a wizard and two women, both in cloaks. One woman had the hood pulled over her head so that it covered her ears. Her face could clearly be seen, her flawless creamy complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. She remained rather quiet and serious; making her seem very mysterious. The other woman left the hood down so everyone could see her almost-white blonde hair and strange yellow eyes. As they took seat around the table, Karez noticed that they seemed to pair up; the mysterious woman sat with the wizard to her right and to her right sat the yellow-eyed girl and the elf. *Oh, good Lord* she thought when she realized that left this man, Aragorn with….her? She removed the makeshift ice pack from his eye, hoping that what she'd done was enough to keep it from swelling too much. "Thank you." he told her. "Not that I needed it." Noticing a slight twinkle in his eye, she smiled, discarded the rag and decided it was time to play nice.  
  
"Aragorn was it?" a slight nod of his head confirmed that she had heard correctly. "Karezantinas Gaerra." Seeing more than a few raised eyebrows around the table, she felt her face slowly flush and added "Just Karez is fine."  
  
While the majority of the table continued to exchange puzzled looks over the human's name, the wizard, who was seated to the left of Karez, rose to his feet and extended a hand to welcome her to the circle. "A great pleasure to meet you, Karez" he said in a voice that practically dripped with wisdom. "My name is Gandalf, the lady to my left is called Arshess" he turned to the woman as he introduced her and gazed at her fondly.  
  
The elf, seated next to Arshess had already risen to is feet to introduce himself. "Legolas. And this is Willow." He referred to the wild looking blonde woman next to him. "She's not good with strangers." He jokingly whispered.  
  
"What?" Willow demanded, her yellow eyes growing wide at his teasing her. "I've got nothing against Strider, but seeing her hit him was the most fun I've had all day." She flashed Karez a wide grin, letting her know she greatly approved of her style.  
  
Karez laughed at Willow's poorly masked amusement and asked "Strider?" as she returned her gaze to Aragorn.  
  
"An alias I use as a ranger." He explained.  
  
This time, Karez got a chance to raise her eyebrow. "A ranger?" she asked, obviously impressed. Even so, she found it difficult to choke back her laughter as a dark purple bruise had gained prominence right below his left eye.  
  
"So, Karez" Aragorn began; Karez's face grew serious at his speaking her name. "wont you stay and have a drink with us?"  
  
The elf, Legolas quickly jumped up again to find her a seat as Gandalf spoke "Yes, as you may have guessed, we do have a few questions." Karez sat in the chair Legolas had fetched for her as he retook his own seat.  
  
"And what would those be?" she sighed inwardly because she knew exactly what he was going to ask about. Her name.  
  
"Your name, for instance." Gandalf confirmed her prediction. "How is it a human travels with an elven name?"  
  
"I don't just travel with it, sir Gandalf, it is my name. My father, Draven, was raised by elves and he gave me an elven name to honor them. At least, that's what I've been told."  
  
"Never fear, child, it it the truth." The voice of the quiet woman, Arshess surprised Karez. She exchanged a glance with her new friend, Willow and mouthed *child?*. "I would be careful, though." Arshess pulled the hood of her cloak off her head, revealing her own pointed ears. "If an elf cannot travel through here without problems, a human such as yourself would certainly be labeled a traitor."  
  
Karez shivered slightly at Arshess' chilling statement and set her mind to enjoying her drink and the company of Strider.  
  
  
  
Just chapter one, obviously, the story will go on. Everything written before this point was written by the owner of Arshess, I'll try to get her to post it. R/R please, I'll take constructive criticism, but no flames. 


End file.
